I recently caught one of those too. I have no idea how as I'm running ESET NOD32 antivirus and the Comodo firewall. I wasn't even doing anything online at the time (although I had a Firefox window open), it just randomly popped up and took control of my system. Luckily it was very easy to remove, but I still don't know how it got into my system.

Be sure you have a password to all admin accounts on your computer. They can sneak through networks (especially school and work) very sneakily.

I've repairs 2 computers at work recently with similar infections. By "repair," I mean back-up and reformat. They are a bugger. And even if the scanner's not there, the keypress logger still might be and virus scanners aren't very good at picking those up yet.

That brings back memories. I was dealing with them constantly back in 2004 (our school network wasn't very secure), especially SpyAxe and it's clones (which installed with a trojan). Anyone remember these ones?

Possibly through an ad? I'm not quite certain how viruses work, but can't you get them through infected ads?

I'm 90% sure it was through an ad. I use Opera without an adblocker half the time, and Mozilla with an adblocker for any potentially problematic browsing. If I goofed it could have gotten in that way.

I remember that one. I got that on my rig many years back. At the time all I knew about computers was how to turn one on. It was the SpyAxe infection that prompted me to lean more about computers and got me into building my own.

Malwarebytes should be run in safe mode. It won't detect most rootkits when run in a regular startup.

You've clicked on something and agreed to install it. It cannot be installed in a way it would take over your system unless you've approved that (by you, I mean the Windows user that is set to be an administrator.

Do you have UAC enabled?

Yes, I do. It could have been any number of things. Windows 7 asks you for permission before doing EVERYTHING, and it's easy to mindlessly click through an update screen for Java or Adobe or what have you and not notice it's not a real update.

How much easy? :D I've absolutely never noticed the UAC screen, unless I'm clicking on a setup file, or removing stuff through Programs and Features.

Is it THAT hard to spend a second or two to read what your computer is asking you to do?

It's probably not a bad idea to have a read only thumb drive for these sorts of situations. Basically something you can load up with an antivirus program or even better boot from to do the scan.

I've personally been impressed by my Kanguru Flashblu 2, has a handy read only switch that can be employed.

But, yeah, those sorts of viruses are really annoying.

Yes, I have the attention span of a HOT DAMN SHINEY SQUIRREL OVER THERE.

I didn't know there were such things! I'll have to look for one, Hedward - I appreciate it. I do all my family's computer repair and maintenance so that could come in handy! :o

I didn't either until recently. I know that some of the other manufacturers make them, but I have that one and it's quite well designed and pretty inexpensive. They're really intended for IT professionals that need to be able to update their software regularly, but that have to plug the drives into many different computers.

It's not going to protect one against keyloggers and some malware is shielded against USB based scanners, but it's quite useful.

Also they're great for going to get prints made at Walgreens or similar, you can plug it in without worrying about getting infected.

In one regard, I like them: beer.

See. I'm the family fix-it guy for this stuff even though my only special qualifications as an anti-virus technician are: using search engines and following instructions.

So someone tells me their stuff is acting weird, or basically locked out of usefulness. They bring the machine over, I boot it up, and then see what comes up. These fake AV programs always give you a name or two to work with, so that becomes my search term. A few seconds later, I get a ton of websites chock full of instructions on how to deal with it. I hit up a few of them to look for A) clear instructions, and B) similarities in instructions between the sites. Pick one and do what it says. Success rate: 100%. It's not hard, unless one has no patience. Admittedly, that's easy for me to say since it isn't my PC with the problem. X D

A few hours, maybe half-a-dozen reboots, and a 12-pack of beer magically shows up in my fridge. Not bad for writing down an error message or pop-up, searching, and doing what the fix-it sites tell me to do.

Welcome to the club. I wrote here a couple of months ago how Security Sphere 2012 trojan scareware had hit an XP machine that my gf had been using, apparently she had installed or agreed on something. It was quite hard to get rid of, especially since you couldn't know for sure if the instructions found on google to get rid of it were legit, or only ways to install even more trojans. Frankly, I'm not sure I had even heard of "Malwarebytes" before the incident, sounds about as legit as Security Sphere 2012.

Considering how many interesting freeware programs and games there are of whose security you have no idea, maybe it is a good idea that even freeware would come only through Windows Store... I dunno.

Dang, that reminds me I forgot to disable "allow apps from other sources besides Android Market" from my gf's Android tablet and phone, but frankly I think she has no idea how to install stuff on them even through Android market, let alone outside it.